Often today if a man and woman want to get married, they first live together to see if they would be a good fit. To a lot of people, it makes sense to see if you are “compatible” before marriage, but really the opposite is true.

My boyfriend and I are in our late twenties, have been dating for almost a year, and are seriously considering becoming engaged. He has many wonderful qualities, including being reliable, a hard worker, very affectionate, and always willing to talk about anything. My concern is regarding some personality differences that have come up between us.

In speaking to a group of priests on February 25th, Pope Francis urged that during marriage prep, couples must be helped to understand “the profound meaning of the step that they are about to take. . . They say yes, but do they understand this? Do they have faith in this? A true catechumenate is needed for the sacrament of marriage.”

It’s trivia time! There seems to be a trend on TV these days – from Parks and Rec to The Office, Gilmore Girls to Grey’s Anatomy- that the romantic thing to do is to impulsively get married in private and then have a big ceremony with friends. And with many shows, and in the case of a recent episode of Last Man Standing, the venue was switched last minute from the Church to a retail store where the family worked, which apparently was more meaningful.

One of the most surprising –and quite frankly, disturbing- things I have learned since being an online marriage prep instructor is how many Catholics don’t actually know what a Sacrament is. They have been raised Catholic and sadly for one reason or another, they have not grasped the beauty of what grace is all about.

There is beautiful scene from the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin where the father of the leading lady offers her some tender but challenging advice on measuring authentic love: He says; ‘Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision.

I always giggle a little when a couple misunderstands the question on immorality in the online marriage prep course. It’s an understandable misinterpretation: the difference between immorality and immortality is a “t”. While we are asking about things are not-moral in marriage, some couples give us an explanation of how they think they are soul mates for eternity and their love is immortal.

Joe and Brenda:“We were surprised with the amount of required work! I’m almost 30 and my wife to be is in her late 20’s. After working all day, and planning our wedding, I would say in total we have spent at least 30 hours working on this. Come on! This is 2013! This just seems a bit old school! Like us, most people already live together. Other religions just sit down with the couple getting married and have a chat. This took up a lot of our time!"

At the same time, this is what a general ad for magazines claims:Media continues to proliferate. Attention span continues to shrink.
Why then are 93% of Americans adults still so attached to magazines?

I always giggle a little when a couple misunderstands the question on immorality in the online marriage prep course. It’s an understandable misinterpretation: the difference between immorality and i...